Zimbabwe plans to sell animals including elephants, jackals and wild cats to a zoo in North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang, according to Vitalis Chadenga, director of the African nation’s parks authority.The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority is also studying applications from Japan, Mozambique and three other unidentified nations to buy species, Chadenga said by phone today from the capital, Harare.

“We don’t just export wildlife without first ascertaining if the conditions they will be held in are safe and we consider that conditions in Pyongyang will be suitable,” he said. Under both domestic and international law, Zimbabwe is allowed to sell wildlife to foreign nations, Chadenga said.Among the animals being sent to North Korea, an impoverished, communist nation, are elephants, giraffes, zebras, jackals, hyenas and civet cats, none of which are endangered in Zimbabwe, Chadenga said.More